Business vs Pleasure

Lately I have been working on a blanket project for my son. He really wants a Minecraft creeper blanket. I have been really excited about making it for him. It's relaxing to work on, yet I feel like I should be working on items for my shop too.

If you have a Etsy shop when do you decided what project to work on? I wanted to create some baby blankets for my shop but I don't want to take time away from my project for my own kid. Although my best sellers are baby bracelets which are really pretty fast to make I want to create something new for my shop.

If you think about it how much time do we actually spend on making making money for our family or spending money compared to doing something for fun? I feel like I spend more time worrying about money then doing something for fun, or that is more enjoyable and not worry about making money.

How do you balance between doing something for fun such as crafts and such, and doing something for a business?

May the 4th Be With You!

Do you call your self a Star Wars Geek? Well I don't really but my son and my husband are! LOL I watch the movies and like them but I am not obsessed like my kid is. Today though is May 4th which is STAR WARS DAY!!! Do you have your star wars gear on today? Yes I own one so I am wearing my girly pink Star Wars shirt with BB8 on it cause he is da bomb!!!

For those of you that crochet do you have any fun Star Wars WIP's that you are working on or have done in the past?

Me personally I don't currently have anything Star Wars related that I am working on, but previous in my shop I had and sold light saber popsicle cozies!! They were super fun to make!

WHAT DO YOU THINK??? Should I make more of these?

For this happy day and occasion I am having a 15% OFF SALE in my shop today!! Just enter in MAYTHE4TH at checkout!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/EverythingPrecious

FREE GIVEAWAY!

FREE Kids YOGA/Dance Socks GIVEAWAY!!!

 That's right! I am giving away these awesome kids yoga/dance socks! To win all you have to do is follow my blog and leave a comment. Sounds easy right? The winner will be chosen in a week on May 10th!

Sleepy Morning

Trying to wake up in the morning is one of the hardest tasks. Most days I just feel like laying in bed all day and not getting out for anything. Today was one of those days. Do you ever feel like you want to be a cat and just lay around all day? That is me today, but I managed to get out of bed and start the day. Granted I am still in my pj's drinking my coffee and waiting for my sons ride to pick him up for school.

I wanted to get a jump on this morning writing to try to wake my brain up a little. As I sit here typing and yawning I feel like it is going to take a while to actually have my brain awake. What do you do to get your brain awake in the mornings when it just woke wake up?

I want to learn to crochet!

The other day I was working on some of my baby bracelets for my shop and my 7 year old son comes up to me and says "mom I want to learn how to crochet like you!" I said you have to have patience and not get frustrated with it. Let me tell you about him so this will make more sense.
My son is a very gifted child. He goes to a charter school for gifted and talented kids. He comes home and works on his spelling (which is the only thing he struggles with) and when he gets a word spelled wrong he starts to break down and cry and get upset. Being a perfectionist like that is hard so if its not right or he doesn't get it then he has a melt down.

Well here we are talking about learning a new skill that takes practice and patience and I wanted to make sure that he didn't get frustrated and upset. I sat down with him and taught him how to use the crochet hook, and how to "wrap" the yarn around his fingers like I do. We started with a chain and just doing that over and over again.

I was so incredibly proud of him that he didn't get upset or frustrated at it once! He kept trying and practicing. He wanted to make a tail band for his Eevee stuffed animal. So here is that creation that he made for his stuffed animal!

My life My Shop

I started a job a year and a half ago. I loved it and it took up a lot of my time. It was working with special needs children in a school. While it was a great job and I loved working there my back didn't agree with me. Just within the last week though I took a look at my job and life and had to think about what I wanted to do with my life. What can I do that I love but won't physically be demanding on my body. Then I thought "Hey lets re open my Everything Precious shop and try to make that more of what I want".
So here I am with my grand re opening last week and I already made a sale! It was a great motivator to know that I can do this if I put my heart and time into it! So here I am back at work on my shop! Come back to my blog and stay with me on my journey!

Trying out adult yoga/pedicure socks!

Tried making adult yoga/pedicure socks. They look cute but the sizing is a little off. I used my own feet to measure but for a female I have really big feet! HAHA
Here is what they look like though!

I have come back from the dead!!! Haha just kidding. I know I have been absentee for a while. I have been super busy.  My son just started coach pitch baseball, and my shop has been super busy with baby braacelets and such. I also added a new line of kids yoga socks to my shop and I am going to be making adult yoga socks too!
Here is the child size yoga socks that I have for sale now. These can be made in any colors and also made any size.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/229453031/kids-red-white-and-blue-yoga-socks-dance

My family and I have also started a new Etsy shop as a family. My husband loves to go rockhounding and majored in Geology for a long time. I have been enjoying going with him and so has our 5 year old. If you like rocks, gems and fossils then you should check out our shop! We also sell supplies for jewelry! Check it out!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RockhoundColorado

More to come soon!

Newest in shop!

I have added the sleep masks to my shop! What is neat is not only can you purchase one mask for your kiddo, but I have a listing for a party pack! So if your little girl is having a birthday party sleep over or just a fun slumber party then you can purchase masks for them to wear!
Masks Section of shop

Purple mask

Pink Mask

Party Pack!

I also have added some new bracelets to my shop too! These are bracelets with barrel clasps and you can even get the names embroidered on them! Here is the link to those!
Barrel Clasp Bracelets

Kids and Reading

This morning I came home today from taking my son to school and I the roads were bad. I live in Colorado and when it snows it is usually cold and last night it was raining and then started to snow and was cold. So the roads this morning were icy and so I came home and sat at the computer to relax and de-compress. I made myself some coffee with my nice new milk frother I got for Christmas and check my email, facebook and twitter. I came across this tweet that Parents Magazine posted about reading to your kids. Talks about how reading to them at an early age will encourage them to become readers and like and want to read.
Now when I was pregnant with my son I read to him in my stomach. We had one of those microphone things that you put on your stomach so the baby can hear. We didn't read a lot to him when he was younger, but when we turned say 2 then we started to read every night to him. Now that he is 5 and in Kindergarten learning how to read himself we are starting to read to him more and encouraging him to read some of it to us. We are also starting to read more chapter books to him since he is old enough that he will keep his attention when there are no pictures to look at.

I am curious as to how many of you that have kids read to your little one when you were pregnant and how often you read to them now?

If you would like to see the article I read here is the link to it! I follow them on twitter and they post some really interesting stuff!
http://www.parents.com/blogs/parents-news-now/2015/01/08/education/new-study-reveals-reading-aloud-to-kids-does-matter/

Teething!

When my son was a baby and was teething I tried many different things to help. We tired baby orajel, teething rings, pacifiers, and other things. The one that he seemed to like the best though was either ice in a washcloth or just a wet washcloth that I put in the freezer. So I thought what would be a great cobination of the two for me to make? I came up with the idea of a TEETHING POUCH!!! So here is the newest addition to my shop. I hope that it catches on and mom's try it for their kiddos.

So here you can put ice cubes in it.

It has velcro to close

It is made of 100% cotton yarn so its OK for babies mouths. You can either put ice cubes in it for them to chew on or you can wet the entire pouch and stick it in the freezer! Pass this on to your friends and families! Here is the link to see it in my shop!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/217710967/baby-teething-pouch?

Working on lighting in pictures

I am working today on using my new camera and trying to get some good shots of my items. It is hard but I know if I keep working at it then I will get the hang of it. Today the light is very bad too and usually I am working with natural light but today is snowy and cloudy and cold! So my light isn't great, but here are some of the shots I have taken today. Any advice would be helpful!

I tried both flash and no flash.

I lightened it up a bit with Picasa.

My puppy was helping lol

Getting more traffic!

Well after a long time of not getting a ton of views and traffic to my shop I am finally getting more to my shop! I am participating in 2 groups on facebook that is helping tremendously! I also am coming up with a few new item ideas, one of which is for sale in my shop! The kids sleep mask is now for sale and I am going to be making more of them and adding them as a pack to market for girls slumber parties/sleepovers! Here is the one I have for sale now:

Here is the link to it if your interested in buying it!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/216963613/crochet-child-size-sleep-mask

I am not going to give much info on the product that will be added this week but it has to do with teething for babies!

Virtual Sale!

My shop and many other wonderful shops are participating in a Virtual Sale today! Some come on by and see all the wonderful items!!! Today at 7pm EST! Here is the link!
Virtual Sale Link

Twitter Party!

Took part in my first Twitter Party today! It was a great help to my stats in my shop! Here are some of the gorgeous items I saw! All you can find on Etsy. Also my shop is participating in a Etsy Virtual Sale. Here is the facebook link!
https://www.facebook.com/events/880647398622366/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

There will be lots of other shops there also! So come check it out! Tomorrow Jan 3rd from 7 to 10 pm EST time.

LMRCreations2

BellissimiOrnamenti

 

PennyWhistleJewels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you all have a wonderful 2015! I rang in the new year with my husband and my 5 year old son watching Back to the Future Trilogy last night. Found it fitting cause in the second one they go to 2015, which my son found funny cause what they thought back in the 80's that 2015 would look like is nothing like that!
He managed to barely make it to midnight then went straight to sleep. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it or not. I worked on some inventory while we were watching the movies also, and rang in the new year this morning with a sale! So maybe that is a sign that its going to be the start of a great year!

Happy New Year from my family to yours!

New creation try...

So I was trying to think about new things for babies and kids that I could make. I was thinking how to make babies sleep better. Well how do adults sleep good? Sometimes they wear masks. So why not a kid wear a mask? Maybe someone has already made them but I wanted to crochet them! So I found a pattern courtesy of http://www.repeatcrafterme.com/2012/12/crochet-sleepy-owl-mask.html and just did it without the owl on it and and made it with a smaller hook! I am planning on making more and some of them for babies too. It would keep the sun out of their little faces and eyes when they are trying to sleep!
Here is what I made today!

Need some input.....What do you think?

After Christmas....Before New Years!

I admit the Holiday's took time away from my shop and blogging. I hope everyone had a great Christmas Holiday but New Years is just a couple days away! I don't think we have any big plans for the New Year celebrations. My husband although is Buddhist so he will take our son to his temple for the ringing of the bell on New Years Eve.
Do you have any New Years traditions that you take part in?
I am still debating on weather to let my 5 year old stay up until midnight for the new year. I think he could but do I really want a grumpy 5 year old the next day?

Lately I have been getting more into taking photos and posting them on facebook and such. My dad just bought a new camera and gave me his old one too which is nicer then the one I had. My father in law also is very into photography. In fact he has a website that I would love to share with you! Check out his photos they are breathtaking!
http://www.brownhatphotos.com/

The other day he came up to me and said "you are doing a wonderful job with your photos and capturing the angles and such". I was very excited and touched that he would say that. So I decided to add some digital download options to my etsy shop. Right now I only have one but will be adding more to it.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/EverythingPrecious?section_id=16536477&ref=shopsection_leftnav_7

December braclet/anklet sale!

All bracelets/anklets in my shop are 10% off for the rest of December! Come check out what I have! I make a lot of custom name ones also!

http://www.etsyonsale.com/shop/EverythingPrecious

Get yours today!

Finished Hat for my son

I finished the earflap hat I made for my 5 year old son! I think it came out good for my first time making it! Might nedd to make it bigger next time but overall it came out nice!